i have always known sugar was bad for me. had to ditch gluten and just couldnt get past how nasty GF grains were. even "properly" prepared ones. i have never liked rice anyways. i dont usually label what i do as primal as i was doing it before i found MDA. so no real wakeup call as such. more a slow slide into this way of being. the stricter i am, the better i feel.

So, I'm walkin' along, minding my own life, falling in love with my new city of choice, when all of a sudden the pink slime debacle hits the proverbial fan.

Pink slime? "Nah," I think, "it's just a bunch of organofreaks making noise." I google. No it's true. I'VE BEEN EATING PINK FUCKING SLIME. Sorry for yelling, but it really pissed me off. I mean really, does everything have to turn to shit? My beloved burger? How f***ing dare they! I used the F bomb quite a bit when I first found out.

Well, you know Google. One link leads to another. So after about 48 hours of drinking vodka, researching the meat industry, learning about CAFOs, and making myself look at debeaked chickens, I put my head down on the table and drunkenly sobbed, "I'm going vegan...."

I ate a bunch of rice, beans, and tofu over the next few days, and even tried nutritional yeast as a cheese substitute (tastes like ass). I slept a lot and farted a lot. "Hmmm," I thought, because, though I might not be the brightest bulb on the tree, I do occasionally glimmer a bit, "I don't think sleeping and farting is a very good way to live one's life."

Besides, I really wanted a hamburger.

So, I got the idea to google, "negative effects of tofu." (Bring on another bottle of vodka, this is going to be bad.) Somehow, during all of that, I also found out about BPAs. So, let's get this straight:

-Meat has gone from nutritious to shit.
-Produce has about 40% fewer nutrients than when our grandparents were alive.
-Tofu gives you man boobs.
-The linings of cans are linked to a whole bunch of crap, but there are no definitive studies.

From there I found Paleo and Primal,* which taught me about grains and legumes. Who'd a thunk that farting from beans was a prelude to an early death?

So, I guess I should thank the makers of pink slime and that guy who freaked everyone out by showing how the stuff was made, because if the food producers hadn't been such a bunch of greedy MFers, selling us meat that isn't meat, and tuna dipped in soy, corn in just about everything, pus in the milk supply, I'd have just kept bopping along hangin' in my new city without a care in the world.

*And I went to Whole Foods and bought four pounds of grass fed ground beef.

I've known about paleo for years, but always dismissed it as being silly. I mean, cavemen? Grok? Please. I really started researching it earlier in the year and it made more sense. Ultimately, it translates to clean foods and clean eating, and Primal gives me a little more flexibility. I tried it and it works for me so I think I will stick to the basic principles for the rest of my life. It's not so hard at all for me to eat lots of vegetables and meat.

F 28/5'4/100 lbs

"I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath; do your research."

i was doing weight watchers, then one day i hit the stumble button on firefox and i was brought to a post mark had done on something. i read it, liked it, then read a bunch of his other stuff...it all made so much sense that i made the switch.

I read The Clan of the Cave Bear, which sparked my interest in evolutionary anthropology. Once I started learning about how we're supposed to live and eat, I realized that the way we eat totally goes against nature. I didn't see any logic in continuing a pattern which is obviously so far removed from the way nature designed us. I actually started eating Paleo style on my own, before I realized it was a "thing." I told a friend of mine what I was doing and why, and she was like, "Oh, you mean the Paleo diet? Our boss does that!" So, I looked it up and found my way here.

My dad died of diabetes related illness. He died one week after is 69th birthday. He was 20 when I was born. I decided 20 years more wasn't enough. I started losing weight and getting in shape. I found Mark's Daily Apple when I was googling low carb recipes. I have been eating this way ever since. I lost a bunch of weight and am in great shape!

It was my husband's wake up call, really. He hit 201 lbs and freaked out. He'd heard of the 'caveman diet' and we'd both pretty much laughed at it. But after years of low-fat, boneless chicken breast, whole grains and no butter, bacon or ribeyes, how did we both end up fat and in my case, sick? We'd done everything we were supposed to do. So he hit 201 and went into research mode. We started talking about it and turned up the MDA site. I went into research mode. A couple days later, we decided to do it.

Haven't looked back. Only once in 6 months has any kind of flour crossed my lips on purpose. I feel great, look better and my confidence is back. What's not to love?